interdisciplinary studies
"For more than a decade, Colby students in biology and environmental science have had an unusual opportunity to take on the role of environmental consultants. Their class project is to study a lake exhaustively for an entire year and then present their findings to the people who live on its shores."
That is not a description from the course catalogue; it is the introduction to a Maine Public Radio story about Colby's Problems in Environmental Science course. Each year the class has received an enthusiastic response from landowners and state officials, and the environment of several central Maine lakes are demonstrably better for the effort. Last year the class became news when it attracted a crowd of almost 100 people for a presentation on environmental impact and water quality in Oaks Pond and Lake George, both in Skowhegan, Maine.
Colby was a pioneer when it introduced environmental studies and environmental science back in the 1970s. This year students in the class called themselves "The Colby Environmental Assessment Team." Environmental protection officials praised the student work as valuable and sophisticated, and environmentalists in the lake associations are thrilled that Colby students help educate the public about how to keep Maine waters clean.
African Studies
» Go to the African Studies site.African studies was offered as a minor beginning in the 2001-02 school year. Africa is a prime area for study and research as it comes into its own in the 21st century, and in recent years the number of Colby students who spent time studying in Africa more than doubled. Students have worked in 11 different African countries. The minor is flexible and complements majors in anthropology, French, environmental policy, history, government, and international studies. With Colby's state-of-the-art Language Resource Center, Colby students can study Swahili or Arabic using audio programs. The library collection of Africana, both books and films, has been enhanced, and the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Center in Cape Town, South Africa, is a popular and, as students will tell you, amazing experience.
American Dreams
"Through a series of essays, students work toward a creative resolution of our issues and dilemmas."That is in the course description for American Dreams: The Documentary Film Experience. Students work in teams to document the American experience as they find it in Maine, and the year-end presentation of the films is always a standing-room-only event. Recent projects have featured Penobscot Native Americans on Indian Island, a community anchored by a Dominican bodega in Portland, and the inspirational stories of students at a residential school for troubled youth. An impressionistic film on student protests at the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas summit in Quebec was accepted for the fourth annual Maine International Film Festival. Students prize their documentaries and their experiences in the course. "This is the thing I'll take away from Colby and show people," Mark Edgar '01 said. "Phyllis [Prof. Phyllis Manocchi] has the power like I've never seen in a professor to motivate students."
